Thomas Pinckney

Thomas Pinckney (23 October 1750-2 November 1828) was the Governor of South Carolina from 20 February 1787 to 26 January 1789, succeeding William Moultrie and preceding Charles Pinckney.

Biography
Thomas Pinckney was born on 23 October 1750 in Charleston, South Carolina, and he was educated in England at Westminster and Christ Church before returning to the Thirteen Colonies in 1774. In 1775, he became a captain of the 1st South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army, and he became an aide-de-camp to Horatio Gates. Pinckney was wounded and captured by the British Army at the Battle of Camden in 1780, and he would later be released in a prisoner exchange before fighting alongside the Marquis de Lafayette in Virginia. After the war, he ran his plantations, and he was elected Governor of South Carolina on 20 February 1787. He presided over the committee that ratified the US Constitution, and he would later become a diplomat. Pinckney assisted John Jay in his treaty with Great Britain, and he negotiated Pinckney's Treaty with Don Manuel Godoy, granting the United States navigation rights along the Mississippi River while limiting US expansion. In 1796, he intended to run alongside John Adams in the presidential election, but he was forced into third place by Thomas Jefferson's scheming. From November 1797 to March 1801, he served in the US House of Representatives, and he served as a Major-General of the US Army during the War of 1812. Pinckney died in Charleston in 1828.